Control gate for bottle vending machines



F. N. JAMES CONTROL GATE FOR BOTTLE VENDING MACHINES Jan. 27, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 26, 1950 3&1

fiaz/r /1( James 4 INVENTOR.

A TTORNE Y Jan. 27, 1953 F. N. JAMES CONTROL GATE FOR BOTTLE VENDING MACHINES 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 26, 1950 Frazier /V. James INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY Jan. 27, 1953 JAMES CONTROL GATE FOR BOTTLE VENDING MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 FiledJan. 26, 1950 fiaz/er M James INVENTOR.

ATmRNEY UNITED STATES FFI'CE CONTRGL GATE FOR BOTTLE VENDING MACHINES Frazier N. James, Dallas, Tern, assignor, by direct and nicsne assignments, to Lone Star Vendor Corp, Dallas, Tex a corporation of Bel-aware Application January 26, 1950, Serial No. 140,649

4 Claims. (Cl. 312- i8) This invention relates to merchandise vending Figure is a, fragmentary sectional view taken machines and more particularly to machines for on line i i of Figure 3. vending bottled beverage. Figure 5 is a transverse sectional view taken The principal object of the invention is to proon line -5. of Figure l. vide a machine for vending bottles or similar arti- 5 Figure 6 is an enlarged sectional View, taken on else in which there is actually but one driven line 85 of Figure 1. element, the same consisting of a shaft carrying Figure 7 is a fragmentary perspective view one or more article supporting and releasing showing a group of shelves defining the inclined member occupying the bottom outlet opening of feeder magazines and the control gates therefor, a vertical delivery magazine, which latter is and replenished by a single or two opposed banks of Figure 8 is a detail view of a modified form of inclined. storage or feeder magazines, from which article release member. articles are transferred to the delivery magazine Continuing with a more detailed description singly by gravity and progressively from the of the drawing, reference numeral Ii! denotes uppermost to the lowermost feeder magazine. generally the frame of the vending unit which Another object of the invention resides in the may be installed singly or in pairs in an insulated novel construction and function of the article and refrigerated cabinet of any desired external supporting and releasing mechanism, specifically design. The frame consists of the vertical rails the article engaging members, the latter each H forming the corner members of the frame and consisting of a hub having thereon two or more to the rear pair of rails H is affixed the rear end curved arms, the compound curve of each pair of of each of a plurality of inclined and vertically arms being calculated to provide a continuous spaced shelves or trays 12 which define the feeder support for the column of bottles in the vertical or storage magazines. The forward ends of these delivery magazin in any position of the engaging shelve are secured to opposing sides of the frame member, thus to effect detachment and release short of the front of the latter to define a vertical of the lowest bottle of the column with the least space referred to herein as the vertical delivery possible agitation. magazine.

Still another object of the invention is to pro- In loading the machine with bottles It, the ride mean at the discharge end of each inclined vertical delivery magazine is first filled from hotfeeder magazine to prohibit release of bottles 90 tom to top, after which each of the inclined feeder therefrom prematurely. This control means conmagazines is filled. As. the top of the column of sists of a group of vertically aligned plates, each bottles in the delivery magazine recedes, the being hinged at its outer edge to a rail parallel feeder magazines are opened progressively from with one corner of the vertical delivery magazine. top to bottom and as this occurs bottles move Each plate has a portion overlapping the next singly from the active feeder magazine by gravity, adjacent plate and while the plates are individutaking their place on top of the column.

ally displaceable in an outwardly direction by the In order to prevent interference between the weight of a bottle seeking entrance to the delivbottles in the vertical delivery magazine with ery magazine, the overlapping portion of the those seeking exit from the feeder magazines, and plates effects interlocked relationship thereof 49 further, to insure orderly transfer of the bottles from the top to the bottom of the assembly, from the feeders to the delivery magazine, an asrequiring that they be restored to their operative sembly of control gates is provided, each individposition collectively or from the lowermost plate ual gate M being hinged at l5 to a vertical rail upwardly. This arrangement prevents improper [6 on one side of the frame I!) adjacent the disloading of the machine. charge ends of the feeder magazines (Figs. 2 and Other objects will appear as the description 7). An exam n of Fi re i l ev al that proceeds taken in connection with the accomeach gate is made up of laminations of three panying drawings, wherein: plates, the intermediate plate having its outer Figure l is a front elevational view of the edge hinged at 5 to the rail I6. The outer plate vending unit of a bottle bending machine em- 59 is of the same length as the inner plate but is bodying the invention. downwardly offset at a to overlap the upper edge Figure 2 is a side elevational View thereof. of the intermediate plate of the gate immediately Figure 3 is a detail View of the motor for below, so that the gates may be opened individoperating the bottle release mechanism, showually by pressure of bottles in the respective feeder ing in section the means for detachably connectmagazines, while closing of the gates may be acing the motor to the release mechanism, complished collectively by moving the highest plate to closed position, due to the interlocked relationship afforded by the offset a of the Plate of each gate. This arrangement makes it impossible for an inexperienced person to improperly load the machine which would likely result in fouling of the bottles.

It is obvious that the gates |4 may be formed in a single piece while three parts are shown riveted together. In any case however, there is provided an inner and an outer vertical flange H and I8 respectively, on each gate M, which have the effeet to maintain relative parallelism of the bottles in the delivery and feeder magazines, as borne out in Figure 5 in dotted lines.

It is apparent from the foregoing that with the delivery magazine filled with bottles, the latter will bear against the gates M of all but the feeder magazine next above the top of the column of bottles in the delivery magazine and will thus restrain the bottles in these feeder magazines. However, the weight of the bottles in the feeder magazine next above the column in the delivery magazine will cause the ate of the feeder magazine to swing to one side of the delivery magazine to enable transfer of bottles from the feeder to the delivery magazine quietly and without jolting or jarring the bottles. As the gate swings to the open position, as shown in dotted lines (Fig. '7) the outer flange 8 of the gate will be received in the longitudinal V-shaped groove I 9 in a vertical plate 29, disposed on one side of the delivery magazine (Figs. 2 and 5).

In Figure 6 is shown an enlarged View of a bottle supporting and releasin means which is situated at the lower end of the vertical delivery magazine. This releasing means consists of a group of rotary members 2|, mounted rigidly on a shaft 22 extending across the lower end of the delivery magazine. Three of these members according to Figure 5, are disposed to engage the body of a bottle l3 while a fourth engages the neck thereof to insure parallelism of the bottle being released, with its companions in the column. Each member 2| has a plurality of curved arms 23 (Fig. 6), the convex curves 24 of the arms defining, with a group of vertical and horizontally spaced guide rails 25, a support for the column of bottles in the delivery magazine. The convex curves 24, combined with the concave curves 23 of each blade 23 form compound curves which respectively support the column of bottles and cause separation of the lowest bottle from the column with minimum drop or uplight of the latter. As the bottles are successively displaced by the feathered ends of the blades 23, they are sustained by a curved guide plate 21 (Fig. 6) as they are carried by the members 2| to and deposited upon a hinged plate 28 which latter serves the dual purpose of a slide down which the bottles emerge from the machine and as a closure to prohibit escape of chilled air from the refrigerated confines of the cabinet. A torsion sprin 29 returns the plate 28 to closed position when displaced by a bottle.

It will be observed in Figure 1 that each of the vertical guide rails 25 has cut-away portions 39 in which the curved arms 23 of the members 2| operate. This enables the hubs of the members 2| to be moved into closer adjacency to the leading edges of the vertical rails 25, thus to reduce the width of the throat formed by the arms 23 each time the rotary members 2| are actuated, and prevent the bottles from descending below the plane of the axis of the shaft 22 on which the members 2| are mounted. This makes for smoother performance, free from agitation referred to.

The form of release mechanism shown in Figure 1 to Figure 7 includes the rotary members 2| having four arms. In this form, the members make one quarter revolution to release a bottle and are driven by a motor 3| whose circuit is opened and closed by a switch 32 (Figs, 1 and 6), actuated by successive arms 23 of one of the members 2|.

In Figures 3 and 4 is shown the manner in which the motor 3| is attached to the shaft 22 of the release mechanism to enable motors to be readily and quickly exchanged for repairs and the like. The shaft 22 is bored and slotted at 33 to receive the end of the motor armature shaft 3 3, which latter carries a pin 35 adapted to enter the slot 33. The motor is mounted on a support 38 which in turn, rests on a like support 3! bolted to one side of the frame l0. To hold the motor support in position, a pair of pins 38, movable in aligned openings in both supports 36 and 31 are held by coil springs 39 in a position to lock the motor support in a position to align its shaft with that of the release mechanism. By depressing the pins 38 against the resistance of springs 39, the motor support and motor may be quickly detached from the machine.

In Figure 8 is shown a slight modification of the members making up the bottle release mechanism which differs from that just described only in the number of arms. For this reason, the same reference numerals are employed to denote like parts. It is pointed out however, that instead of making one-quarter revolution for each bottle delivered, the modified member makes but onethird revolution.

Manifestly, the construction as shown and described is capable of some modification and such modification as may be construed to fall within the scope and meaning of the appended claims is also considered to be within the spirit and intent of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a bottle vending machine having a vertical bottle delivery magazine and a vertically spaced series of inclined feeder magazines communicating therewith, a control gate at the discharge end of each of said feeder magazines for preventing premature release of bottles therefrom, said gate comprising a plate hinged along a vertical edge to a side of said vertical magazine and adapted to be held in closed position by pressure of bottles in said vertical magazine, said gates having a lower extension overlapping the next lowest gate to interlock said gates from the lowest to the highest gate of the assembly and means protruding from the surfaces of each of said gates for maintaining parallelism of bottles in said delivery and feeder magazines.

2. In a vending machine having a vertical bottle delivery magazine and a series of vertically spaced, inclined feeder magazines communicating therewith, a control gate for each feeder magazine hinged along one vertical edge and adapted operatively to close the discharge end of the feeder magazine under pressure of bottles in said delivery magazine but displaceable under pressure of bottles in the feeder magazine when the top of the column of bottles in the delivery magazine recedes to a point below the discharge end of the feeder magazine and means carried by each of said control gates for maintaining parallelism of bottles in said feeder and, delivery magazines 3. The structure of claim 2 in which each con trol gate has an extension at its bottom to overlap the upper edge of the next lowest gate.

4. The structure of claim 2 in which the means for maintaining parallelism of bottles in the feeder and delivery magazines consist of spaced apart vertical flanges on and at right angles to the opposite sides of each gate and engageable by bottles in the feeder and delivery magazines.

FRAZIER N. JAMES.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Number UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Beretta Oct. 23, 1894 Case June 15, 1948 Newman Jan. 18, 1949 Heiman Feb. 22, 1949 James Sept. 6, 1949 Case June 13, 1950 

